The jury found Ivey guilty of burglarizing a home in the 2600 block of Oberlin Street in April.

One of the residents of the house heard a noise in the living room in the middle of the night. The resident chased the intruder out of the house and over a fence before abandoning the chase. He saw the silhouette of a man with short hair, wearing blue jeans.

After searching for the intruder himself, the resident called 9-1-1.

Later that night, police saw a white Ford pickup driving slowly without its lights on.

When an officer tried to make a traffic stop, the driver of the Ford led police on a chase in the Canyon Lakes area around University Avenue and Grinnell Street.

The chase ended when the driver of the Ford lost control and abandoned the vehicle on Grinnell Street, near the scene of the break-in.

Police ran the licence plates and found the truck registered to a man living 25 to 50 yards from the spot where the truck was abandoned.

The truck's owner led police to Ivey, who was living in a trailer next to his residence.

Ivey had scratches on him, but no physical evidence linked him to the break-in, and the resident of the home never made a positive identification, saying Ivey fit the general description of the burglar.

Evidence of the evasion was used to establish a connection, said Alicia Crowley, assistant criminal district attorney.

Although Ivey was convicted of burglary of a habitation, nothing was taken from the home, hence the "with intent to commit theft."

"A reasonable inference can be made that if someone is in your home in the middle of the night, they're planning to take something," Crowley said.

Ivey faced a steeper punishment because of two prior convictions for aggravated assault with an affirmative finding of a deadly weapon and injury to a child.

With two prior felonies, the state considers Ivey a habitual offender.

Crowley said she didn't argue for the life sentence jurors returned. "I asked the jury to give him what they thought he deserved," she said.